EL PASO -- State Sen. Eliot Shapleigh on Friday accused Austin High School of being part of a scam to improperly raise standardized test scores in the El Paso Independent School District.

Three years ago, 352 underperforming sophomores disappeared from Austin before they could take the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills test, Shapleigh said.

"Why weren't they there for test day?" Shapleigh asked at a morning press conference in his El Paso office. Schools with consistently poor scores can be closed or reorganized.

School officials told students who were expected to test poorly to go home sick, Shapleigh said.

Other students in that group were shifted to different schools, held back a grade or pulled out in other ways to ensure only the best students were tested, he said.

"We need to make sure every student gets a quality education," Shapleigh said. "What they earn is dependent on what they learn."

John Tanner, Austin High School principal, attended the press conference, and said Shapleigh overstated the number by more than 60 students. The rest of them, he said, could be accounted for in legitimate, although sometimes troubling, ways.

Many of them dropped out, he said, explaining that the high school had one of the worst dropout rates in Texas at that time.

Austin, although showing recent improvements, tested poorly for many years and has been under special rules, Tanner added.

"Parents had a right to transfer their kids out to other schools," he said.

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Some students were held back or promoted, he said, but those actions were based on academic performance and Texas Education Agency rules.

The state agency looked at the data and found no "red flags," spokeswoman Suzanne Marchman said.

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